This invention relates to medical apparatus useful in surgical preparation during certain surgical procedures. More particularly, it relates to support apparatus used prior to and/or during surgery on extremities, such as hands, feet, and knees.
Before the surgeon operates on a person, it is very important that the skin at and near the place where the surgery is to occur is totally clean and free from bacteria. Obviously, this is necessary to prevent infection in the area where the incision is to occur. Normally, antiseptics such as Betadine are applied around the area where the surgery is to occur. Problems arise, however, where surgery is to occur on human extremities such as the feet and the hands, primarily because during the antiseptic preparation, the hands or feet may come in contact with foreign objects such as the operating table itself before it is prepped as a sterile environment. Therefore, it is highly desirable for the patient's extremity to be kept elevated, with the only contact being that of air, which, in the operating room, is maintainted substantially aseptic.
Medical personnel have attempted to remedy this problem by utilizing foam rubber blocks, pillows, and other crude apparati which may be placed under the patient's upper arm (axilla) in the case where the surgery is to be on the patient's hand. However, these solutions have not been found to work well, primarily because the patient's arm may move and come in contact with a non-sterile surface. Furthermore, because patients come in different sizes, the foam rubber blocks are not very acommodating. It is not believed that there is a surgical prep block on the market today which overcomes the above problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,342 shows an amputation surgery limb support which utilizes a stirrup-shaped device attached to a trapezoidal shaped block which is adapted to swivel about, but it remains in the horizontal plane. However, the amputation surgery limb support device does not deal with the surgical prep problem set forth above.